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PHOTOS: CPAC’s lineup for 2013

Christie wishes CPAC ‘all the best’

The Ames Straw Poll held in Iowa has free drinks, free eats, free face painting and free country music followed by a bunch of speeches and a meaningless presidential straw poll.

CPAC has a bunch of speeches and a meaningless presidential straw poll.

Previous CPAC straw poll winners have included President Jack Kemp (three times), President Phil Gramm, President Steve Forbes, President Gary Bauer, President Rudy Giuliani, President George Allen, President Ron Paul (twice) and President Mitt Romney (four times.)

Winning the CPAC straw poll would be a kiss of death except that two winners — Ronald Reagan (three times) and George W. Bush (once) — actually survived it and went on to the Oval Office.

Statistically, it is far better to lose the straw poll than to win it, which may be why Christie says he is not upset by being snubbed. “It’s not like I’m lacking for invitations to speak around the country,” he said.

Christie is being punished because he appeared in public with President Barack Obama to thank him for Hurricane Sandy relief for New Jersey and also because Christie later berated Republicans in Congress because they held up that relief.

But that is only part of it: Christie is being snubbed because he is a winner in a party that embraces losing as a sign of faith and purity.

Two of the major speakers at CPAC will be — drum roll, please — Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney.

The CPAC 2013 official motto is: “America’s Future: The Next Generation of Conservatives.”

It is a little hard to see, however, how either Palin or Romney represents America’s future or the next generation of conservatives.